Don’t say it, I know:  If you want to keep readers you gotta give em something to read.
I’m sorry, I really am, but I have had so much on my plate this year that something had to go, and blogging never paid my bills, so…
I have missed writing this blog though.  Every once in a while, I’d turn my neck from all these computer monitors and look out the window.  I’d blink about a hundred times and think, “I just thought of a great post, I miss that blog.”
I wasn’t sure anyone would still be around after such a long …read more

My apologies everyone for not posting for so long.  There’ve been some personal developments that I really can’t go into but I wanted to let you know that my posts will be fewer, at least for the short term.  I’m trying to juggle a lot of things right now, and I’ve had to prioritize things such that the blog just isn’t getting the attention it deserves.
Things are fine, I’m fine, but once in a while, life piles a bunch of crap on you all at once and you have to deal with it, that’s what I’m doing now.  Please hang …read more

Okay, new contest. Sudoku for Astronomy Haiku.

It’s easy. Write me haikus and you could win your very own Sudoku Hand-held Game!
So, anyway, here is the deal:
I have somehow ended up with two very nice hand-held electronic sudoku games. One of them, the igadget sudoku, even has a backlit screen. Fancy.
The other one is called a Sudoku Advance. I am giving them away to the authors of the two best haikus.
Winner takes their pick of these two brand-new sudoku handheld games, and second-place gets the other one! They both are loaded …read more

Many of you have probably heard this story, but I am going to blog about it for the heck of it because I love this story so much.
The most famous version of this story is pretty much the way it appeared in Stephen Hawking’s 1988 book A Brief History of Time, and it goes like this:

“ A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called …read more

s m a i s m r m i l m e p o e t a l e u m i b u n e n u g t t a u i r a s
Now rotate your decoder ring two half turns left…..
Actually, the above mish-mash of letters is an anagram.
An anagram. A, how d’you say? a word scramble. This one was written by none other than Galileo himself (Galileo sometimes wrote in anagrams to keep his discoveries secret).
The correct solution to the anagram is “Altissimum planetam tergeminum observavi”. That is Latin …read more

Gulliver must’ve traveled to Mars.
How else do you explain the fact that Jonathon Swift, writer of Gulliver’s Travels, predicted the two moons of Mars and their approximate positions over a hundred years before their discovery?
Explain that.
I think Gulliver must’ve made a pit-stop to Mars somewhere down the line.
Here is a small excerpt from the book:
They [the Laputians] have likewise discovered two lesser stars, or satellites, which revolve about Mars, whereof the innermost is distant from the center of the primary planet exactly three of its diameters, and the outermost five; the former revolves …read more

I watched this movie called “The Heavenly Body” starring Hedy Lamarr on Turner Classic Movies. I am not sure why the movie is called “The Heavenly Body” …..unless they are referring to how astronomically hot Hedy is. What is the name Hedy short for? Hedwig?
Anyway, the plot goes like this: an astronomer who works long hours at an observatory suddenly finds out one day that his wife, played by Hedy Lamar, has taken a strong interest in astrology. Naturally, he is horrified, he does not know what to do, so he tries to no avail …read more

Dear Theta:
You are but a capital, cursive O. Theta, you are but a zero with a curvy line. An egg with a skull cap. You are but a simply decorated easter egg. How simple you are–yet, so useful. You, you, simple symbol, simple ambassador of mathematics, physics, meteorology…. Just look at you.
You are on the Earth Day Flag.

They call you the “dead theta,” the official flag symbol of earth day.
When did you die, I wonder? Did you receive a proper burial?
According to Wikipedia:
According …read more

I love coffee. I lurveth it. I slurpeth it. Without it, I am a worthless lump of astronomer.
I do not drink Starbuck’s coffee often, as I prefer the local coffee from Columbia Street Roastery in good ‘ol Champaign, IL.
With that said, I must share with you this cute-cup quote:

Coffeecup photo courtesy of: Shawnblog

http://www.stargazing.net/kevin/poetry.html
April is National Poetry Month.
What better way to celebrate National Poetry Month than to write an astronomy limerick or haiku?
Haiku is 3 lines: 5 syllables in first line, 7 syllables in second line, 5 syllables in last line.
Okay, here is an example:
Astronomybuff,
I carry them in my heart,
how I love thy blogs.
Now, I want to see yours, people. Be creative. Show me your best work!

With vast convolutions Draco holds
Th’ ecliptic axis in his scaly folds.
O’er half the skies his neck enormous rears,
And with immense meanders parts the Bears.
-Erasmus Darwin’s Economy of Vegetation

Poem photocredit: Moirabot